Our cruise this year started differently from our previous cruises, by relaxing! We were wavering on which cruise to take so I ended up booking our flights before our cruise. Once we decided it turns out that we were in Florida 2 days before our cruise. I booked us a hotel and car and we actually spent time seeing the city we were leaving from. Our hotel was on the waterfront, near the beach. It was also located in the downtown section, known for its galleries and tourist-expensive dinners. Our first night in we walked the area, found dinner and then drove around a bit until we found second dinner, Boston Market! I have a love for their sweet potatoes and seek them out whenever we are traveling. I will also admit to being perhaps more excited about finding Boston Market than the cruise, but just barely.
The next day, Saturday, we awoke to an art festival going on on the street in front of our hotel. We wandered and were very surprised that there was so much art that we liked! Usually we can’t find anything at art fairs, but we loved at least 6 booths. But alas, we were in Florida and didn’t want to haul back a huge painting. We walked around and then walked to a nearby park that was holding a doggie walking event. Once we got our fill of doggies we moved on to our next event, shopping! There is a monster indoor outlet mall nearby that I dragged Chris through. We must have been walking too much already that day because I was totally not in the mood for shopping. I got a few maternity clothes and once we took the full tour we beat it out of there. Back at the hotel for a nap and then we wandered the area some more before finding a slice of pizza for dinner and then my newest craving, McDonalds hot fudge sundaes. It was not a shabby way to spend the day.
Sunday was cruising day! We returned our rental car and caught the shuttle to our cruise terminal. We made the rookie mistake of arriving on time and spent an hour in line with our fellow passengers. Once on board we found our cabin and made our way to the buffet for lunch. We acquainted ourselves with the ship, took a nap and proceeded to do what we always do on cruises, not much of anything! Our ship, the Emerald Princess, was lovely. They had all these little specialty cafes that we took full advantage of. Chris’ favorite was a sushi/tapas bar with rotating tapas daily. I feel head over heels in love with the international café, where fresh pastries were made in the morning. I had a minimum of 2 chocolate croissants every day and felt no guilt about it. They were amazing!
Monday we awoke to find ourselves at Princess Cays, a private island owned by Princess. It’s basically a day at sea, but you’re actually on sand. The buffet they serve is the same as the boat and the activities are pretty limited. We took our time getting off the boat and enjoyed a few hours on the beach reading and getting some much-needed sun. A storm started to roll in in the afternoon, so we hightailed it back to the ship, along with everyone else. That evening we shelled out for the steakhouse specialty restaurant and were treated to all the surf and turf we could fit in. We thought it was worth our $20pp, but not much beyond that.
Tuesday was a day at sea. We found lounge chairs in a sunny but mostly windy spot and read books for hours and hours. Naps, numerous trips to the buffet/pizza/soft serve ice cream line, formal dinner and we ended the day with a movie under the stars.
On Wednesday we were in St. Maarten! Hooray! The weather looked decent and we had a full day planned. We walked downtown a little for some half hearted shopping, found a McDs for a hot fudge sundae, and then took a taxi out to the airport beach. There’s a beach that is directly under the path of approaching planes, which is supposed to be really cool. I misjudged how long it would take us to get there and we had a snorkeling trip at 1, so once we arrived we had 15 minutes to enjoy the beach and find lunch. It did not go well. The beach was lovely and we’ll certainly go back. Luckily our taxi driver offered to stick around and take us back, so really it was just 80 minutes of a taxi tour. I rolled with the disappointment, but Chris was not amused at our expensive wasted taxi trip. We arrived at the docks for our snorkeling tour on time and joined 8 others on our excursion. We had a 30 minute ride out to our first snorkeling point and I was pleased not to feel sick at all. I was worried I might get sea sick since I was preggo, but I was fine, unlike a fellow passenger who fed the fishes. Our first snorkel spot was lovely. We followed fish around and saw many different varieties. Our next stop was at a French beach for a mud bath. Somewhere on the island is mud that is of spa quality. Our captain had a bucket of it, mixed in some water and then we smeared ourselves with it. Once dried you wash it off and supposedly look younger and refreshed. I think we just look exfoliated. The most amusing part was the French locals (naked!) would just come up to our group and help themselves to our mud as they wished. They were not a shy bunch. After our group exfoliation we went to our last snorkel spot. It wasn’t as populated as the first spot and I was starting to get chilly. 3 hours of snorkeling was plenty at that point. We both really enjoyed our excursion. It was worth what we paid and Chris always loves seeing fishies. We were taxied back to our ship and then bid farewell.
Thursday found us in St. Thomas. Hello again! We initially had big plans of taking a taxi and a ferry and then another taxi to visit some beaches on St. John, but after our taxi fiasco the day before, we decided to scrap it and just sit on a local beach somewhere. We took a beach to Magan’s Bay and arrived before 10. It was a bit overcast, but plenty warm to sit out in. After all, it was snowing when we left SLC. Chris dug me out a little sand seat where I parked it for the rest of the day while he built sand creatures that were coming to attack me. He did an awesome iguana and then a snake that ate a dog, Snoopy, I believe. The most amusing thing was the people that were walking by. They all wanted to talk to Chris about his amazing creations. I love Chris’ creativity, but really, it was just a sand lizard. Some of my favorite quotes, “Wow. This is amazing. You should be a professional sand castle builder guy.” “This is great. No, really. Are you selling it?” If I was thinking a little faster I would have replied, sure, for $20 we’ll move down the beach and you can tell people you made it. Needless to say, I was unwillingly in a lot of tourists photos that day. We grabbed a quick lunch at the shack and then were disappointed when what was a tiny sprinkle showed no signs of letting up. We went back to the ship at 1:30, very satisfied with our day. I think if we had done all the traveling to St. John only to have 2 good hours before it rained we would have had a sucky day. Once again we decided we love St. Thomas. It’s so much prettier than St. Martin. We’ll certainly be back.
On Friday we arrived in Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. I had prearranged to rent a golf cart, as previous cruise passengers said there really wasn’t much else to do on the island. They were not kidding. We drove around and around, seeing what sights there was to see. The island was really unimpressive. It’s pretty much always windy there so nothing grows above 3 feet. The town isn’t much to speak of and beyond the cruise terminal there weren’t any touristy things to see. Chris enjoyed recklessly driving our little cart all over that tiny island while we shouted to all the dogs, horses, cows and goats that wandered the roads. Around lunch time we headed back to the beach by the cruise terminal to find some jerk chicken. It was supposed to be amazing. It was just ok. The jerk part apparently referred to the douchebag passengers surrounding the joint. We jumped back on our golf cart and headed down the beach further to do some snorkeling. We rented gear (the worst we’ve had yet!) and snorkeled around the beach area. There were some cool fish, but not a ton in that area. At one point I pointed to a large grey fellow and steered Chris towards it for a closer look. Once we got closer I could see its enormous teeth and quickly back flipped my way out of there! It was a barracuda, which did not help my fear of fish at all. The beach happened to have a ton of sea glass on it, so we collected what we could, returned our crappy gear and called it a day. On our way back to the ship we found a very small random store to buy some snacks in and then returned our cart. The island is really not set up for people to go beyond the cruise terminal. You could tell that the snorkeling and diving was amazing, but the island itself wasn’t that great. We had an awesome day and I’m happy that despite his attempts, Chris did not dump me out of our cart.
Saturday was a day at sea as we returned to Florida. Unfortunately we encountered a storm, so there were no sun rays to catch. We snagged some of the few sheltered chairs and read for a few hours by the pool. We spent the rest of the day moaning about going home, trying to think of baby names (no progress), planning our next cruise and eating. Always eating. We did manage to finally catch a good sunset. It was super, super windy getting to the front of the ship. We had to pull ourselves along the rail. It ended up being super comical at the lengths it was taking to see a sunset.
Our flight on Sunday was at 10, but they weren’t letting people off the boat until 7. I was a little nervous about the time frame, but from the time we got in line to get off and finished going through security at the airport it was only 45 minutes. I was very impressed. Our flights back were fairly uneventful. We had 2 layovers, which sucked, but we ran into the Oderdas at the Denver airport, which was pretty funny. Chris’ folks picked us up at the airport and Jackson sang to us how pleased he was that we were home while Tina just yelled at us for 3 days straight. So, same same.
The next day, Saturday, we awoke to an art festival going on on the street in front of our hotel. We wandered and were very surprised that there was so much art that we liked! Usually we can’t find anything at art fairs, but we loved at least 6 booths. But alas, we were in Florida and didn’t want to haul back a huge painting. We walked around and then walked to a nearby park that was holding a doggie walking event. Once we got our fill of doggies we moved on to our next event, shopping! There is a monster indoor outlet mall nearby that I dragged Chris through. We must have been walking too much already that day because I was totally not in the mood for shopping. I got a few maternity clothes and once we took the full tour we beat it out of there. Back at the hotel for a nap and then we wandered the area some more before finding a slice of pizza for dinner and then my newest craving, McDonalds hot fudge sundaes. It was not a shabby way to spend the day.
Sunday was cruising day! We returned our rental car and caught the shuttle to our cruise terminal. We made the rookie mistake of arriving on time and spent an hour in line with our fellow passengers. Once on board we found our cabin and made our way to the buffet for lunch. We acquainted ourselves with the ship, took a nap and proceeded to do what we always do on cruises, not much of anything! Our ship, the Emerald Princess, was lovely. They had all these little specialty cafes that we took full advantage of. Chris’ favorite was a sushi/tapas bar with rotating tapas daily. I feel head over heels in love with the international café, where fresh pastries were made in the morning. I had a minimum of 2 chocolate croissants every day and felt no guilt about it. They were amazing!
Monday we awoke to find ourselves at Princess Cays, a private island owned by Princess. It’s basically a day at sea, but you’re actually on sand. The buffet they serve is the same as the boat and the activities are pretty limited. We took our time getting off the boat and enjoyed a few hours on the beach reading and getting some much-needed sun. A storm started to roll in in the afternoon, so we hightailed it back to the ship, along with everyone else. That evening we shelled out for the steakhouse specialty restaurant and were treated to all the surf and turf we could fit in. We thought it was worth our $20pp, but not much beyond that.
Tuesday was a day at sea. We found lounge chairs in a sunny but mostly windy spot and read books for hours and hours. Naps, numerous trips to the buffet/pizza/soft serve ice cream line, formal dinner and we ended the day with a movie under the stars.
On Wednesday we were in St. Maarten! Hooray! The weather looked decent and we had a full day planned. We walked downtown a little for some half hearted shopping, found a McDs for a hot fudge sundae, and then took a taxi out to the airport beach. There’s a beach that is directly under the path of approaching planes, which is supposed to be really cool. I misjudged how long it would take us to get there and we had a snorkeling trip at 1, so once we arrived we had 15 minutes to enjoy the beach and find lunch. It did not go well. The beach was lovely and we’ll certainly go back. Luckily our taxi driver offered to stick around and take us back, so really it was just 80 minutes of a taxi tour. I rolled with the disappointment, but Chris was not amused at our expensive wasted taxi trip. We arrived at the docks for our snorkeling tour on time and joined 8 others on our excursion. We had a 30 minute ride out to our first snorkeling point and I was pleased not to feel sick at all. I was worried I might get sea sick since I was preggo, but I was fine, unlike a fellow passenger who fed the fishes. Our first snorkel spot was lovely. We followed fish around and saw many different varieties. Our next stop was at a French beach for a mud bath. Somewhere on the island is mud that is of spa quality. Our captain had a bucket of it, mixed in some water and then we smeared ourselves with it. Once dried you wash it off and supposedly look younger and refreshed. I think we just look exfoliated. The most amusing part was the French locals (naked!) would just come up to our group and help themselves to our mud as they wished. They were not a shy bunch. After our group exfoliation we went to our last snorkel spot. It wasn’t as populated as the first spot and I was starting to get chilly. 3 hours of snorkeling was plenty at that point. We both really enjoyed our excursion. It was worth what we paid and Chris always loves seeing fishies. We were taxied back to our ship and then bid farewell.
Thursday found us in St. Thomas. Hello again! We initially had big plans of taking a taxi and a ferry and then another taxi to visit some beaches on St. John, but after our taxi fiasco the day before, we decided to scrap it and just sit on a local beach somewhere. We took a beach to Magan’s Bay and arrived before 10. It was a bit overcast, but plenty warm to sit out in. After all, it was snowing when we left SLC. Chris dug me out a little sand seat where I parked it for the rest of the day while he built sand creatures that were coming to attack me. He did an awesome iguana and then a snake that ate a dog, Snoopy, I believe. The most amusing thing was the people that were walking by. They all wanted to talk to Chris about his amazing creations. I love Chris’ creativity, but really, it was just a sand lizard. Some of my favorite quotes, “Wow. This is amazing. You should be a professional sand castle builder guy.” “This is great. No, really. Are you selling it?” If I was thinking a little faster I would have replied, sure, for $20 we’ll move down the beach and you can tell people you made it. Needless to say, I was unwillingly in a lot of tourists photos that day. We grabbed a quick lunch at the shack and then were disappointed when what was a tiny sprinkle showed no signs of letting up. We went back to the ship at 1:30, very satisfied with our day. I think if we had done all the traveling to St. John only to have 2 good hours before it rained we would have had a sucky day. Once again we decided we love St. Thomas. It’s so much prettier than St. Martin. We’ll certainly be back.
On Friday we arrived in Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. I had prearranged to rent a golf cart, as previous cruise passengers said there really wasn’t much else to do on the island. They were not kidding. We drove around and around, seeing what sights there was to see. The island was really unimpressive. It’s pretty much always windy there so nothing grows above 3 feet. The town isn’t much to speak of and beyond the cruise terminal there weren’t any touristy things to see. Chris enjoyed recklessly driving our little cart all over that tiny island while we shouted to all the dogs, horses, cows and goats that wandered the roads. Around lunch time we headed back to the beach by the cruise terminal to find some jerk chicken. It was supposed to be amazing. It was just ok. The jerk part apparently referred to the douchebag passengers surrounding the joint. We jumped back on our golf cart and headed down the beach further to do some snorkeling. We rented gear (the worst we’ve had yet!) and snorkeled around the beach area. There were some cool fish, but not a ton in that area. At one point I pointed to a large grey fellow and steered Chris towards it for a closer look. Once we got closer I could see its enormous teeth and quickly back flipped my way out of there! It was a barracuda, which did not help my fear of fish at all. The beach happened to have a ton of sea glass on it, so we collected what we could, returned our crappy gear and called it a day. On our way back to the ship we found a very small random store to buy some snacks in and then returned our cart. The island is really not set up for people to go beyond the cruise terminal. You could tell that the snorkeling and diving was amazing, but the island itself wasn’t that great. We had an awesome day and I’m happy that despite his attempts, Chris did not dump me out of our cart.
Saturday was a day at sea as we returned to Florida. Unfortunately we encountered a storm, so there were no sun rays to catch. We snagged some of the few sheltered chairs and read for a few hours by the pool. We spent the rest of the day moaning about going home, trying to think of baby names (no progress), planning our next cruise and eating. Always eating. We did manage to finally catch a good sunset. It was super, super windy getting to the front of the ship. We had to pull ourselves along the rail. It ended up being super comical at the lengths it was taking to see a sunset.
Our flight on Sunday was at 10, but they weren’t letting people off the boat until 7. I was a little nervous about the time frame, but from the time we got in line to get off and finished going through security at the airport it was only 45 minutes. I was very impressed. Our flights back were fairly uneventful. We had 2 layovers, which sucked, but we ran into the Oderdas at the Denver airport, which was pretty funny. Chris’ folks picked us up at the airport and Jackson sang to us how pleased he was that we were home while Tina just yelled at us for 3 days straight. So, same same.
2 comments:
Reading this just makes me MISS YOU! I can just hear you voice saying the entire story. WHy didn't we hang out more when I lived in Utah? Stupid me! You're looking so cute with your little preggo belly! I'm jealous of your fun adventure. Sounds like a total blast and very relaxing!!
You totally don't even look pregnant in these pictures. Not fair. You'd better be posting a big fat one really soon.
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